


Twilight Bastards

by paintedgold_sprinkledblack



Series: Even Saviors Need Saving [3]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Humor, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-10-25 06:31:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20719670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paintedgold_sprinkledblack/pseuds/paintedgold_sprinkledblack
Summary: Shenanigans and ice cream with quality people!





	Twilight Bastards

**Author's Note:**

> Hullo once again!! I wanted to write a more lighthearted story (a continuation from my previous Works; I've officially made it a series that I hope to continue!!). I always love some fluffy friendship and ice cream. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!!!

* * *

Roaring laughter echoed off the buildings, earning  _ several  _ stares (and eye rolls) from the townspeople. The one at fault was unsurprising - Axel. He was choking on unintelligible words, slapping his knee from the bench where he sat.

_ “Shut UP, Axel!”  _ Roxas growled. The mischievous glint in his eye revealed he wasn’t angry at all, which only made the redhead howl even louder.

Roxas flung himself at the man, taking him down to the ground where they began to wrestle.

“HEY! Watch where you’re kicking!” Ven cried, nearly missing a foot to the chin. He scooted away from the scuffle where Sora and Xion had plopped themselves on the concrete. Xion was playing with the boy’s hair, two hair ties between her teeth as she started to form small pigtails from his unruly spikes. 

Sora was laughing so hard his eyes closed, practically vibrating (earning a ‘sit still!’ and a poke on the cheek from Xion).

He slapped a hand over his mouth in a poor attempt to stifle himself, only succeeding in making his cheeks burn bright red instead.

“Axel is going to get us kicked out of town again,” Ven pouted, “it’ll be funny until he cries over not being able to buy ice cream.”

“Hey! We’re their favorite customers! They’d never turn us away,” Xion shot back with a wide smile, “besides, being loud isn’t a crime!”

“Lighting barrels on fire is!”

“Rude!” Sora gasped, “that one wasn’t Axel’s fault! Roxas was the one that told him he’d put fireworks inside and ‘needed a bit of flame’.”

  
  


The current kerfuffle was caused by a blizzard spell sent directly down the back of Roxas’ shirt. It had seemed like a good idea at first to teach Axel how to use other spells, but he turned it into a game (of course) and had been pranking the others for well over a month. 

“HEY!” Xion suddenly barked as she added the final touches to the pigtails that really came out looking more like antennas on Sora’s head, “if someone gets a bloody nose again I’m not healing it!”

“Okay, MOM.”

“Ew, gross Axel. She’s like ten years younger than you!” Roxas snorted, finally climbing off of the other Keybearer. Not before one last shove, however. 

Axel sat up, taking one look at Sora before bursting into laughter once more, “Xion! What did you do to the poor kid!”

“Don’t be mean! I like it,” the brunette huffed, poking at his hair that only became wilder by the day. Riku had come at him with scissors the week prior, Sora shrieking bloody murder in response until Aqua had to come to reprimand them to quiet down.

“You haven’t even seen yourself,” Ven chuckled, also taking a turn poking at his spikes, “I thought my hair was untamable.”

“Shit! The ice cream shop is gonna close soon!” Roxas leaped to his feet, using one arm to tug at his friend, “you’ve got the longest legs! Run!”

And just like that, the fire user tore off sprinting to the other side of Twilight Town, disappearing in an instant. 

“You’re lucky Terra isn’t here, he would’ve made to put munny in the swear jar,” Xion giggled. 

Roxas rolled his eyes, “Ven only said ‘fuck’ once! It’s stupid how quickly it became  _ my fault _ . I don’t even have the worst mouth in this group!”

“I’ve never seen someone pale so quickly in my life,” Sora chimed in, miming the look of horror Terra wore after hearing the vulgar language. ( _ ‘V-Ven! No, you-you didn’t just-AQUA!’) _

Ven was blushing heavily now, rubbing a hand embarrassingly on the back of his head, “Ya really can’t let that one go, huh?” 

“I still think about it from time to time. It was great, you should do it again,” Roxas shot back with a sly grin.

“HEY! It’s almost like you  _ want  _ Aqua to murder me!”

“Be nice to Ven!” the black-haired girl chided, pointing an accusing finger at the boy.

“Whatever, let’s get going to the clock tower to meet Axel before he eats all the ice cream.” 

( _ “You’re scared of her too! Why are you changing the topic-!”) _

Sora was the last to stand, yawning and stretching dramatically, his back cracking and popping loudly as he leaned back.

Then he winced, pain filtered his expression as his hand instinctively went to his chest. He froze and remained still for a long moment, pulling in a sharp breath.

“Hey, you okay bud?” Ven was already at his side with wide concerned eyes, resting a hand carefully on his shoulder. 

“Y-yeah,” Sora said softly, “sorry.”

“Nuh-uh, we already told you no apologies. Just take it easy,” Roxas frowned, his demeanor immediately changed. He watched Sora carefully, taking a step towards him.

“Has it been bad today?” Xion questioned quietly, “can you walk?”

“Just need a minute. Promise,” the boy smiled, “it was okay for a while there. Seems like after a good day it wants to give me a grim reminder.”

“No need to rush. You  _ will  _ feel better, these things just take time. You’ve already done a lot of hard work,” Ven assured. 

  
  


He took in his brother, a deep throbbing in his chest. He wished he could do more to help Sora, they all did. He had done so much for  _ everyone  _ and they could only offer words of encouragement as some sort of half-baked repayment. 

He knew Sora wasn’t upset with them, and maybe that’s what made Ven so sad about the situation. It wasn’t in him to blame others, and after spending so much time in his heart, he also knew the boy didn’t have the greatest self-esteem (which was ridiculous!). 

Two months had passed since Sora won his life back in the Reaper Games. Looking at him then, and looking at him now, he really had come a long way.

His pallor was healthy again, more so than when they first officially met. He knew growing up on Destiny Islands probably meant he was super tan, but since receiving his Keyblade and wasn’t home for several years, his skin tone reflected that (spending a year asleep in some weird memory chamber with no sunlight probably didn’t help either).

When he had been brought home, he didn’t only look a little pale, he had looked  _ sickly.  _ Even his lips were stark white, and it just seemed  _ wrong wrong wrong  _ on him. It was strange, he had never even  _ seen  _ Sora until his heart was finally returned to his body (though the resemblance to Vanitas had been _uncanny)_. Their only real interaction together was when he was very little, but he had been connected to him for so long he felt absolutely miserable watching him struggle. 

He knew he didn’t like how still and quiet he was for several long days after his return, his body forcing him into a long sleep from pure strain and overexertion.

He didn’t like the ‘episodes’ he had where he seemingly dissociated. It sometimes came out of nowhere, he would just stop talking and his gaze seemed far away. It freaked the hell out of everyone the first time it happened, and during those times they learned it was better to talk to him and lean into his line of sight rather than  _ touch  _ him. Riku had made the mistake of taking his hand, and Sora in return went flying out of his seat like he’d been burned and proceeded to burst into tears. They almost had to treat those moments as one would for someone sleepwalking.

He didn’t like how shaky and jumpy he appeared, the wild look sometimes taking over his expression.

At that time, he barely even  _ knew Sora.  _ Yet, it still just all felt so wrong. It was disturbing on an extremely deep level. It hurt.

  
  


Sora broke down one night a while back and ended up confiding in him and Chirithy. How their memories of the final battle weren’t  _ exactly  _ the full truth of the story. All of them being struck down and whisked away by the tornado of Heartless. Riku protecting Sora until the very end. Finding himself in the Final World - where he’d met Chirithy (and apparently it hadn’t been the first time). The stories told to him of people who were dead but couldn’t move on, the Nameless Star who spoke words of encouragement; a girl who was looking for someone. Namine reaching out to Terra’s Will to help change the course of events. Chasing after images and memories of himself until his body was whole and could use the Power of Waking to save Ven and the others (Sora  _ literally reversed time; changed history! That will always be insane!). _

How he watched them die a second time before he was able to accomplish his goal. ‘Paying the price’, or how the younger version of Xehanort had put it after fighting the Lich to retrieve his friend's hearts and bodies. 

  
  
  
  


How Sora knew when choosing to search for Kairi; that he was a goner.

He had wailed for hours, Ven only able to whisper comforting words as he held him close and shed tears with him. 

  
  


It got a little easier after that. He opened up more, let someone know when he needed help.

  
  
  


Now, his tan returned, and it was a sight to behold when Ven realized the boy had freckles! His hair had also lightened some from being under the sun’s rays for long periods of time, streaks of blonde mixed in with chestnut tones. His smiles were bright, his eyes even brighter. He laughed and joked and all of these things seemed right.

Apparently ‘before’ he hadn’t been one to often display his affection physically, which was definitely a change. That wasn’t an uncomfortable feeling for Ven, though, as even he could understand being touch starved. In fact, all of them understood. So long hugs and hand-holding wasn’t weird. 

It wasn’t weird to have someone sleep beside them at night. Sometimes, they’d even have a mass slumber party at the Land of Departure - where everyone would cuddle in one large lump of bodies. 

  
  


Ven didn’t want to act all sappy, but those were his favorite nights (and also the nights he got the most restful sleep). He didn’t have to worry about anyone, because they were all right there. 

  
  


“Okay, I’m good!” Sora grinned, snapping Ventus from his thoughts. He righted himself up once more after several minutes of deep breathing and head pats from Roxas. 

  
  
  


“Promise?” Xion frowned, putting her pinky out to her friend.

  
  


“Promise!” their fingers intertwined, and the group began onward to the clocktower. 

  
  
  


They all still had a long way to go. There was more past pain to feel and a lot of future issues that would surely come into play.

  
  


For such a mess of human beings, they all had each other now.

  
  
  


None of them would ever be alone again -

  
  
  
  
  


And that was enough. 


End file.
